美国国家公共电台 NPR Justice Department Calls Russian Woman, Maria Butina, A Flight Risk

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

The woman who is accused of conspiring¹ to act as a Russian agent inside the United States will appear in court today. Her name is Maria Butina. And she's been detained since Sunday on a charge of conspiracy². Prosecutors³ say she was trying to influence American policymakers to favor Russian interests. NPR's national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been following this story. Good morning, Carrie.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁴: Hi there, Noel.

KING: All right, so the Justice Department has just filed new court papers calling Maria Butina a serious flight risk. Why is that?

JOHNSON: Yeah. In fact, prosecutors here in Washington, D.C., are telling the judge that Maria routinely poses a serious or extreme risk of flight because of the nature of charges against her - the notion that she's accused of acting⁵ as a foreign agent of Russia inside the U.S. and her history of deceptive⁶ conduct. Remember. Authorities are arguing that this woman Maria Butina entered the U.S. in 2016 on a student visa to study international relations here at American University. But they say, in fact, that was a cover story for her work to act on behalf of Russia to steer⁷ influential⁸ American politicians and policymakers toward Russian interests - a lot of other new details in this court filing that's just come out.

KING: What are some of those details?

JOHNSON: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNSON: So there are new correspondence between Maria Butina and a guy described in essence as her handler back in Russia, a guy named Alexander Torshin. She worked for Torshin. He was a member of the legislature in Russia and a member of the central bank. He was sanctioned earlier this year by the U.S. Treasury⁹ Department for trying to subvert¹⁰ democracy and interfere¹¹ with American politics. In fact, there is some correspondence that suggest Butina was given directions from Torshin about people to meet and plans to make here in D.C. and reporting back to him on her findings. They also report - prosecutors do - that they believe that Butina was in touch with other people with ties to the Russian FSB, the successor of the KGB, during her stay in Washington.

KING: Wow. So they have a lot on her - or they appear to. Maria Butina is due in court this afternoon. What do you expect to happen?

JOHNSON: So her lawyer Robert Driscoll has argued she is not a flight risk. He says these charges are overblown. And he's going to try to prevent the government from keeping Maria Butina detained pending¹² a trial, which is what federal prosecutors are asking the judge to do today. He's arguing that, yes, maybe the FBI over the weekend observed her at a U-Haul rental¹³ facility and observed some moving boxes, but there's an innocent explanation for this - that she was moving in with her boyfriend in South Dakota and not trying to flee the United States.

There's a problem with that though. The Justice Department in the FBI say, in this new court filing, that they found electronic evidence of her complaining about her satisfaction with this guy described as her boyfriend. And they say that they have some evidence that she offered an individual, other than her boyfriend, sex in exchange for a position with a special interest group. So a lot of back-and-forth expected to come later today about what Maria was doing - Maria Butina was doing here in the U.S. and why and for Russia.

KING: NPR's national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: My pleasure.

1 conspiring   

密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
• John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。

2 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

3 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

7 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

8 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

9 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

10 subvert   

v.推翻；暗中破坏；搅乱

参考例句：

• The rebel army is attempting to subvert the government.反叛军队企图颠覆政府统治。
• They tried to subvert our state and our Party. This is the crux of the matter.他们是要颠覆我们的国家，颠覆我们的党，这是问题的实质。

11 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

12 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

13 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。